I’ve had the same shower curtain for years, and every now and then it begins to look like this…

And now that I’m cleaning the bathroom top to bottom so often, the dirty curtain was really starting to stand out. Last time I cleaned it, I took the curtain outside, and scrubbed it by hand with a brush, soap, and the water hose. All summer I kept meaning to take it outside again, and this time, use the pressure washer, you know, save myself some elbow grease, but I never did, and now it’s intermittently cold out. So I did what everybody else does; I ignored it, and hoped that nobody would ever notice.

But then I came across a genius idea on Pinterest. I figured I didn’t have anything to lose, so I took the curtain down, and crammed it into my washing machine, along with two towels, detergent, and a cupful of vinegar. I’m still not sure if the towels are an important part of this process, but I always have something that needs to be washed. I set the machine to hot, and walked away. I really didn’t have high hopes, but like I said, it was easy enough to warrant an attempt.

Just to remind you, my curtain looked like this going in…

And when it came out, it looked like this!

That’s right, you can see through it. I know, I still can’t believe it worked, and it was a lot less work than scrubbing it by hand with a brush.

Now that I know this simple trick, I think I’ll add washing the shower curtain to my regular cleaning schedule.